We had another great presentation on our weekly Occupy Supply Webinar title Outreach and Activism:Effective Outreach Lee Gaddies, Sergio Uzurin and Brian Sonenstein joined us for a discussion about out reach tactics. Lee started the conversation off with an account of the Occupy Detroit Listening tour and Outreach philosophy. Members of Occupy Detroit have been attending public meetings and “meeting people where they are at” in order to listen to the concerns of the community. True engagement comes from interaction to often in The Occupy Movements we are unaware of our own privilege and project our ideas with out respect for the people we are trying to help. In Occupy Detroit they address this issue by listening and co-creating solutions

“Objective is to listen learn and foster community relationships in an effort to empower citizens to unite and take action to create solutions to the issues that plague our neighborhoods and communities”

Occupy Detroit Outreach Group

Sergio Uzurin followed up with a more strategic approach to the Outreach issue by going over the practical applications of Chapter 3 of Tools for A Radical Democracy. Going to large groups and building relationships is a great tactics but what do you in those individual conversations?During his presentation John Washington joined in to do a role play to highlight the application of these principles. Knowing your campaign having some sort of adaptable speech about the campaign. Identify who your target is and where they are and set a goal for your outreach campaign. Make sure you have a way to collect data and take notes on your interactions so that you can latter use to activate your base later.

Brian Sonenstein finished off with best practices for using and cataloging information to raise funds and activate people for collective actions. He went over the importance of how you catalog your information getting email and zip code for online campaigns. Brian went through some of the online tools like MailChimp and Nation Builder that you can use to keep track of and contact your people in the future. If you are unable to use one of these sites a simple Google Doc can be effective. Monitoring the activity of the info in you database gives you an idea of how effective you are being. Also responding to feedback can make a huge difference in peoples response to your cause.

The Webinar wrapped up with a informative discussion about Outreach and building your base. Several Occupations brought up there issues with low numbers and burn out and our panel addressed with specific 1st steps to build a base through the tactics discussed

You can look forward to a series of Skill Shares about Occupy and the Media in the month of May. Next week we will discuss a contentious issue Occupy Finance https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/758491558